Erin was an absolute inspiration. The woman literally does everything. She designs research projects all over the world and travels to collect the necessary data so that she can bring it back to her students. On top of this, she is one of the leaders of the Science Academy program at Morristown HS and co-teaches in English and History. She and her co-teachers work together to integrate science and research into the content areas and the results are amazing. Erin told us how she studied with an embalmer in town during the Civil War unit and then they set up a mock embalming in the classroom, where the embalmer used Civil War era tools. How awesome is that?! And that is only one example of the amazing things she is doing.

Personally, I was thrilled to talk to Erin about English. I am a science geek and for a long time considered a career in science before I decided to be an English teacher. As my bio colleague (and my former bio teacher!) always reminds me, I am still pretty involved in science thanks to the Monarch Teacher Network. But Erin helped write Writing Poetry through the Eyes of Science: A Teacher’s Guide to Scientific Literacy and Poetic Response and I was dying to pick her brain before I got my hands on the book. Let me tell you- Erin and Nancy are both amazing! The way Erin described her Science and Poetry summer camp, it was like my dream come true. And the way they integrate science and poetry is inspirational. Erin believes that the act of writing poetry, designing similes, metaphors, and other figurative language, helps students really learn tough science concepts. You know what? I agree!